salomeU2000
The Fly
[SIMG]http://bonovox.interference.com/analysis/aiwiythumb.jpg[/SIMG]
By: Abigail E. Myers
This piece is the first of another two-part series in my lyrical analysis essays. My last two-part series dealt with U2?s ?angel songs?: ?Stay (Faraway So Close)? and ?If God Will Send His Angels.? This series focuses on two more songs that U2 fans often group together: ?All I Want Is You? from 1988?s Rattle and Hum, and ?The First Time? from 1993?s Zooropa.
Both the film and the album of Rattle and Hum close with the song ?All I Want Is You.? The song starts quietly, with a simple, resounding guitar line that continues to pulse throughout the song. In a voice barely above a whisper, Bono sings:
You say you want diamonds on a ring of gold
You say you want your story to remain untold
But all the promises we make
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you?
With this stanza, the listener is introduced to the terms on which the story is told. The ?you? - obviously a lover or romantic partner, has a lot of demands, or at least wishes, which must be fulfilled in order for the relationship to be successful in her eyes. The narrator knows this, as he intones her desires. But, the audience knows right away that the singer has no such terms or desires; all he wants, despite the fact that he would seem to be able to give his lover anything she asks, is her.
Perhaps not understanding what the narrator is trying to say, the lover in turn makes several extraordinary promises to wit. She offers any number of treasures to him: ?a highway with no one on it,? and ?all the riches in the night.? However it appears our narrator is unmoved. Later in the verse, more offers are made:
You say you'll give me
Eyes in a moon of blindness
A river in a time of dryness
A harbour in the tempest?
This all sounds reasonable, and romantic. After all, aren?t these qualities one might look for in a lover? The lover here seems to be saying that she can fill a void, or emptiness in the life of our narrator. She can be there when other things or people are absent; she can promise things that other people can?t.
Maybe the question here, however, is not whether she can deliver on these promises, but if she should be making them at all - even if she can. What does this narrator - or anyone - expect from a lover? Do we expect them to fill the role of a minor deity, or at least a parent figure, trying to give simply without reciprocation, or grant one wish after wish so the other person won?t lose interest or leave?
The narrator of ?All I Want Is You? seems to think so. The repetition in the second verse of the final lines of the first verse seems to imply that he rejects these overblown, fanciful vows:
But all the promises we make
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you?
The promises, he seems to be saying, are welcome. They?re touching. But we make them all the time. Maybe we can cash in on them, and maybe we can?t. He chooses not to make any similar vows. The one thing he can promise is the simplest and truest manifestation of love: All he wants is she. No highways or riches are necessary.
Following this declaration, in the last verse of the song, the lover figure admits what she?d really like to promise:
You say you want
your love to work out right
To last with me through the night?
Maybe, then, the earlier demands and promises of the lover were an attempt to mask what she really felt: a commitment to the relationship and to the narrator of the song. This desire is repeated later in the verse, with a reiterated demand for ?diamonds on a ring of gold? coupled with the confession that she wants ?[her] love not to grow cold.?
This might be the final sign of the lover figure receiving and sending mixed messages. She knows what she?s supposed to want: the material goods represented by the diamond ring, and tries to offer the same things to the narrator. But she also feels a desire to give of herself and forge a lasting commitment, which is of course what our narrator really wants.
As many of U2?s songs of this period examine the dangers of greed and the lust for power (see ?Silver and Gold, ?Bullet the Blue Sky,? etc.), ?All I Want Is You? approaches the subject on a very tender and personal level. What Bono seems to be saying in this song is that even love has become commodified - that in order for two people to keep each other happy, they need to promise each other the world in terms of material goods. The narrator?s simple, naked desire, illustrated beautifully by the cries of ?You?all I want is you?? at the close of the song, gets to the essence of what love and desire are supposed to be: a rejection of the goods of this world and the embrace of one person, for better or for worse - and, more importantly in this song, for richer or poorer.
For Sam
6/12/03
By: Abigail E. Myers
This piece is the first of another two-part series in my lyrical analysis essays. My last two-part series dealt with U2?s ?angel songs?: ?Stay (Faraway So Close)? and ?If God Will Send His Angels.? This series focuses on two more songs that U2 fans often group together: ?All I Want Is You? from 1988?s Rattle and Hum, and ?The First Time? from 1993?s Zooropa.
Both the film and the album of Rattle and Hum close with the song ?All I Want Is You.? The song starts quietly, with a simple, resounding guitar line that continues to pulse throughout the song. In a voice barely above a whisper, Bono sings:
You say you want diamonds on a ring of gold
You say you want your story to remain untold
But all the promises we make
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you?
With this stanza, the listener is introduced to the terms on which the story is told. The ?you? - obviously a lover or romantic partner, has a lot of demands, or at least wishes, which must be fulfilled in order for the relationship to be successful in her eyes. The narrator knows this, as he intones her desires. But, the audience knows right away that the singer has no such terms or desires; all he wants, despite the fact that he would seem to be able to give his lover anything she asks, is her.
Perhaps not understanding what the narrator is trying to say, the lover in turn makes several extraordinary promises to wit. She offers any number of treasures to him: ?a highway with no one on it,? and ?all the riches in the night.? However it appears our narrator is unmoved. Later in the verse, more offers are made:
You say you'll give me
Eyes in a moon of blindness
A river in a time of dryness
A harbour in the tempest?
This all sounds reasonable, and romantic. After all, aren?t these qualities one might look for in a lover? The lover here seems to be saying that she can fill a void, or emptiness in the life of our narrator. She can be there when other things or people are absent; she can promise things that other people can?t.
Maybe the question here, however, is not whether she can deliver on these promises, but if she should be making them at all - even if she can. What does this narrator - or anyone - expect from a lover? Do we expect them to fill the role of a minor deity, or at least a parent figure, trying to give simply without reciprocation, or grant one wish after wish so the other person won?t lose interest or leave?
The narrator of ?All I Want Is You? seems to think so. The repetition in the second verse of the final lines of the first verse seems to imply that he rejects these overblown, fanciful vows:
But all the promises we make
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you?
The promises, he seems to be saying, are welcome. They?re touching. But we make them all the time. Maybe we can cash in on them, and maybe we can?t. He chooses not to make any similar vows. The one thing he can promise is the simplest and truest manifestation of love: All he wants is she. No highways or riches are necessary.
Following this declaration, in the last verse of the song, the lover figure admits what she?d really like to promise:
You say you want
your love to work out right
To last with me through the night?
Maybe, then, the earlier demands and promises of the lover were an attempt to mask what she really felt: a commitment to the relationship and to the narrator of the song. This desire is repeated later in the verse, with a reiterated demand for ?diamonds on a ring of gold? coupled with the confession that she wants ?[her] love not to grow cold.?
This might be the final sign of the lover figure receiving and sending mixed messages. She knows what she?s supposed to want: the material goods represented by the diamond ring, and tries to offer the same things to the narrator. But she also feels a desire to give of herself and forge a lasting commitment, which is of course what our narrator really wants.
As many of U2?s songs of this period examine the dangers of greed and the lust for power (see ?Silver and Gold, ?Bullet the Blue Sky,? etc.), ?All I Want Is You? approaches the subject on a very tender and personal level. What Bono seems to be saying in this song is that even love has become commodified - that in order for two people to keep each other happy, they need to promise each other the world in terms of material goods. The narrator?s simple, naked desire, illustrated beautifully by the cries of ?You?all I want is you?? at the close of the song, gets to the essence of what love and desire are supposed to be: a rejection of the goods of this world and the embrace of one person, for better or for worse - and, more importantly in this song, for richer or poorer.
For Sam
6/12/03
